This invention relates to a paper sheet cutting apparatus which cuts the front end portion opposite to the fold, where both the leading edge and trailing edge get together by center folding, (hereinafter referred to simply as the front end) of a bundle of paper sheets for truing it up after it is subjected to center binding (what is called saddle stitch) processing and center folding processing for bookbinding, and an image forming apparatus equipped with the paper sheet cutting apparatus.
For a paper sheet after-processing apparatus which carries out center binding processing for a bundle of paper sheets which makes a set composed of a plurality of sheets, the publications of the unexamined patent application H6-72064, H7-187479, H8-192951, etc. have been hereofore known.
Further, a paper sheet after-processing apparatus which is capable of twofold processing has been proposed in the publications of the unexamined patent application H10-148983, H10-167562, etc.
There is a paper sheet cutting apparatus which cuts the front end of a bundle of paper sheets for truing it up after it is subjected to center binding processing and center folding processing for bookbinding. Further, in recent years, it has been provided a paper sheet after-processing apparatus, which is equipped with a paper sheet cutting apparatus which, for a bundle of paper sheets on which an image has been recorded by an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a compound machine of these, cuts the front end of the sheets after the bundle of sheets is subjected to center binding processing and center folding processing by the paper sheet after-processing apparatus to make it bound like a weekly magazine.
With respect to a paper cutting apparatus which finishes a booklet through cutting the front end of the booklet, that has been subjected to center binding processing and center folding processing, by cutting means, there are problems as follows.
(1) While the driving source of the cutting means is driven, if a driving means other than the above-mentioned cutting means is operating, it sometimes occurs that the cutting position of the booklet is deviated by the vibration of the other driving means.
(2) When a booklet, which has been produced by the application of center binding processing and center folding processing to a plurality of paper sheets, is subjected to cutting processing, because the projection amount of the front end is different depending on the number of sheets per copy of the booklet, a constant measure of cutting produces the unevenness of the front end owing to an insufficient cutting amount, or waste of paper sheets owing to an excessive amount of cutting. Therefore, it is required a control for suppressing the cutting waste to minimum necessary amount for each of the numbers of sheets per copy of the booklet.
(3) When a booklet made of a small number of paper sheets is cut, a poor cutting such that a paper sheet is pulled in between the upper cutting blade and the lower cutting blade, the deviation of cutting position, etc. sometimes occur. In particular, in the case of thin paper sheets or paper sheets of weak stiffness, or the cutting blade of lowered edge quality, poor cutting occurs frequently. Thus, it is required such an automatic control as to inform the user, in the case where cutting processing is automatically cancelled for the reason that a thin paper sheets which are easy to produce poor cutting are used, of the cancelled cutting processing.
(4) There is a case where it is desired to eject the booklet, which has been produced by the application of center binding processing and center folding processing to a plurality of paper sheets, to the booklet accommodating portion without being subjected to cutting processing.
(5) In the case where canceling operation has been carried out during the image forming processing or the after-processing by the paper sheet after-processing apparatus, if the center-bound booklet is cut-processed and ejected in spite of the requirement to cancel, a large amount of waste time is consumed.
(6) When the leading edge portion of the paper sheets conveyed to the cutting means by the conveyance means hits the stopping member of the stopping means, the stopping means is given a shock, to have its stopping position deviated, which sometimes cause the paper sheets not to be placed at a correct position.
(7) According to the conventional successively conveying method in which the conveyance of a succeeding booklet is started after the cutting processing of the preceding booklet, the cutting processing time for the booklets becomes long.
(8) Cutting processing should be carried out by setting a required cutting measure regardless of the number of sheets per copy of a booklet.
It is an object of this invention, through solving the above-mentioned problems and improving the paper cutting apparatus, to accomplish the improvement of the ease of operation and the increase of booklet accommodating capacity of the paper accommodating portion for carrying a finished booklet ejected after having the front end of the bundle of paper sheets cut which have been center-bound and twofold-processed, and making the size of the paper cutting apparatus small.
Accordingly, to overcome the cited shortcomings, the abovementioned object of the present invention can be attained by sheet cutting apparatus described as follow.
(1) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a first driving source to drive a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a second driving source to drive a movable stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a third driving source to drive a pressing device for pressing the booklet; a fourth driving source to drive a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a fifth driving source to drive a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the first driving source, the second driving source, the third driving source, the fourth driving source and the fifth driving source; wherein the controlling section deactivates all of the first driving source, the second driving source, the third driving source and the fifth driving source, when the controlling section activates the fourth driving source.
(2) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device and the cutting device; wherein the controlling section controls the stopping device so as to variably determine a stopping position of the booklet stopped by the stopping device, based on a number of sheets included in the booklet conveyed to the cutting device by the conveying device.
(3) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device and the cutting device; wherein the controlling section automatically determines that a cutting processing of cutting the front end portion of the booklet is not performed, when a number of sheets included in the booklet is set at a number lower than a predetermined number of sheets.
(4) The sheet cutting apparatus of item 3, wherein the controlling section automatically performs controlling actions so as not to perform the cutting processing and to inform a fact that the cutting processing is not performed, when a number of sheets included in the booklet is set at a number lower than a predetermined number of sheets.
(5) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device, the cutting device and the booklet accommodating device; wherein, when an execution of a cutting processing operation is selected, the controlling section controls the conveying device so as to convey the booklet processed by the cutting device to the booklet accommodating device, and, when a non-execution of the cutting processing operation is selected, the controlling section controls the conveying device so as to convey the booklet to the booklet accommodating device without performing the cutting processing operation.
(6) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device, the cutting device and the booklet accommodating device; wherein, when a further execution of an image-forming operation is cancelled in a mid-course of conducting the image-forming operation, the controlling section controls the conveying device so as to convey the booklet to the booklet accommodating device without performing a cutting processing operation by the cutting device.
(7) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device, the cutting device and the booklet accommodating device; wherein the controlling section applies a magnetizing processing to a driving source for driving the stopping device to keep the stopping device in a fixed state, just before a leading edge portion of the booklet, being conveyed by the conveying device, is batted against a stopping member of the stopping device.
(8) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device, the cutting device and the booklet accommodating device; wherein the controlling section controls the conveying device so as to simultaneously conduct a conveyance processing of the booklet processed by the cutting device and a feed-in processing of a succeeding booklet, by conveying the succeeding booklet into the cutting device while conveying the booklet processed by the cutting device to the booklet accommodating device.
(9) A sheet cutting apparatus for cutting a front end portion opposite to a folded portion of a booklet finished by a center folding processing, comprising: a conveying device for conveying the booklet; a stopping device for stopping the booklet at a predetermined position; a cutting device for cutting the front end portion of the booklet; a booklet accommodating device for accommodating the booklet processed by the cutting device; and a controlling section to control each of the conveying device, the stopping device, the cutting device and the booklet accommodating device; wherein the controlling section adjusts a stopping position of a stopping member of the stopping device corresponding to cutting size set arbitrarily.
Further, to overcome the abovementioned problems, the abovementioned object of the present invention can be attained by image-forming apparatus described as follow.
(10) An image-forming apparatus, comprising: an image-forming section to form an image on a sheet, fed from a sheet feeding device, based on image information; a sheet finishing section, which comprises a binding processor to apply a binding processing to a set of sheets, each of which is the sheet having the image formed by the image-forming section, and a folding processor to apply a folding processing to the set of sheets processed by the binding processor; and the sheet cutting apparatus cited in any one of items 1-9; wherein the image-forming apparatus produces a booklet by applying the binding processing and the folding processing to the set of the sheets, and the cutting device cuts the front end portion of the booklet.
Further, to overcome the abovementioned problems, another image-forming apparatus, embodied in the present invention, will be described as follow:
(11) An image forming apparatus of this invention comprises image forming means for forming an image in accordance with image information on a paper sheet conveyed by paper feeding means, binding means for applying center binding processing to paper sheets on which an image has been formed by said image forming means, paper sheet after-processing apparatus provided with folding means for applying twofold processing to the center-binding-processed paper sheets, and the paper sheet cutting apparatus embodied in the present invention, and it is characterized by it, that a booklet is produced by the application of twofold processing and center binding processing to the paper sheets having an image formed, the booklet is finished by cutting the front end of said booklet by cutting means.